Chris Main

Biography

Chris J. Main , a Clinical & Health Psychologist , is currently Professor of Clinical Psychology (Pain Management). He qualified in Clinical Psychology at the University of Edinburgh in 1974 and then worked in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital as a clinical psychologist for a further 2 yr. He worked for a further 6 years in the mental health service in Glasgow and as a research psychologist in the Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery. In1982 he was awarded a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to study the treatment of pain in N. America and was thereafter appointed as Principal Clinical Psychologist at Hope Hospital in Salford with an appointment as a Research Fellow in The Rheumatic Diseases Centre and an attachment to the Manchester and Salford Pain Clinic where he helped to develop the first pain management Programme specifically for low back pain in the U.K (for the evaluation of which he was awarded the Back Pain Association Medal . He completed his Ph.D. (on Psychological factors in back pain) in 1984 and was made a Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1985. As head of the Dept. of Behavioural Medicine he had a brought clinical remit but further developed a specialist interest in the assessment management and treatment of musculoskeletal disorders and in dermatology with investigations into psoriasis. He was given an Honorary Readership in rheumatic diseases in 1987 and an Honorary Personal Chair in 1997 at the University of Manchester.

After two years with a personal chair in clinical and occupational rehabilitation (with partial secondment to Keele University), he was appointed to his present post at Keele University.

Research and scholarship

He has published and lectured widely, on aspects of pain management. He is co-author of The Back Book; Living with Back Pain, co-editor of Pain in Older People and the 2nd edition of his text book on Pain Management (With M.J.L. Sullivan and P.J.Watson) in 2008) and has served on several international committees and working parties. He was chief editor of the IASP Curriculum on Pain for Psychologists and he was the first psychologist to be elected as an honorary member of the British Pain Society.

He was convenor of the Decade of the Flags Conference (2007); which has led to a number of publications and a monograph on the early management of musculoskeletal problems (Kendall et al.,2009). He delivered the annual Droitwich lecture to the BHPR in 2008 and the annual British Pain Society Lecture for 2010 for which he was awarded the Pain Society Medal. He was co-Guest Editor of the Physical Therapy Special Issue on Psychologically Informed Practice (May 2011).

He has collaborated widely on research in both clinical treatment and occupational health His particular research interests currently include secondary prevention in clinical and occupational settings, research methodology and the role of communication.

Teaching

He has lectured and taught widely in  the U.K., in other parts of Europe (particularly Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands),  N. America, and Australasia, often as a keynote lecturer or invited participant in professional meetings,. Hosts have  included the International Association for the Study of Pain (for which he has been invited to teach on Refresher course for five consecutive tri-ennial World Congresses);  several individual IASP chapters in different countries and the IASP Special Interest Group on Clinical and Legal Issues in Pain (of which he is past President;  the International Study of the Lumbar Spine (of which he is Past Scientific Chairman); The European Spine Society (for which he was a tutor)The Society for Back Pain Research (of which he is a Past-President) and the British Pain Society for which he has convened and delivered many study days and workshops.

In addition he has been actively involved in the development design and delivery of teaching and training within a succession of treatment  trials here in the Arthritis Research UK Primary Care Centre.

Further information

He has been an advisor in the past to the M.R.C.; Department for Work and Pensions; the Scottish Government and the Corporate Health and Performance Group further information (anything else you would like to include: e.g. committee memberships). He has been actively involved as a reviewer of articles and grants for a wide number of journals and research funders. Recently he has been a section editor for the European Journal of Pain, is currently on the Editorial Board for Physical Therapy and is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board for MedRisk in the U.S.A.